Call for Evidence
Rail investment pipelines: ending boom and bust
Call for evidence:
The rail network is one of the UK’s most valuable assets and the rail supply sector plays an important role in sustaining and growing high-skill labour markets and investing in innovation to deliver an efficient railway with more reliable services that will help meet the UK’s net-zero targets.
The Committee is seeking views on how a planned, steady pipeline of projects and investments (including elements such as track enhancements, station upgrades, and rolling stock orders) could benefit the development of the railway, including by enabling the rail supply industry to plan ahead, giving confidence to potential investors and potentially reducing costs and other frictions.
The Committee is also interested in how the development of a long-term project pipeline could help address skills shortages in the rail industry.
To inform this work, the Committee would welcome written evidence addressing any or all of the following questions:
a) What have been the barriers to establishing stable and transparent long-term investment pipelines in the past (such as for track enhancements, station upgrades, and rolling stock orders) and how can they be overcome?
b) What funding sources need to be drawn on to plan such pipelines and is an appropriate framework in place for the allocation of funding to different projects?
c) How could a potential pipeline provide transparency and certainty for industry? For example:
i. what time period should it cover?
ii. what level of project specification should it include?
iii. what commitments from Government should it include in both the short and long-term?
iv. what budgets and sources of public funding should it encompass?
v. how should it engage private investment?
d) What role should the industry play in the development of this pipeline and how should Government engage with industry in its delivery?
e) What role would a long-term rail investment pipeline play in developing the railway supply workforce?
f) How should a pipeline interact with the Government’s development of a wider long term rail strategy, rolling stock strategy, infrastructure strategy, and the Invest 35 industrial strategy?
Deadline for written submissions: Friday 7 Febraury 2025.